A conventional tablet feeder will be described below with reference to the drawings. The tablet feeder includes a tablet cassette and a base serving as a drive portion that removably supports the cassette. FIG. 9A is a perspective view illustrating that a tablet cassette 10 is detached from a base 20. FIG. 9B is a perspective view illustrating that the tablet cassette 10 is mounted to the base 20. FIG. 10A is a vertical sectional perspective view illustrating the inside of the tablet cassette 10. FIG. 10B is a vertical sectional perspective view illustrating the tablet cassette 10 and the base 20, whereby the tablet cassette 10 is mounted on the tablet base 20 from above and the base 20 supports the tablet cassette 10 from below. FIG. 11A is a vertical sectional perspective view of a rotor 16. FIG. 11B is a perspective view of the rotor 16 and a motor portion 21 in the course of being coupled to each other.
The tablet cassette 10 (see FIGS. 9 and 10) includes a tablet container 10A. The tablet container 10A includes: a fitting frame 11 that allows horizontal positioning and attitude stabilization of the tablet cassette 10 when the tablet cassette 10 is mounted to the base 20 (support portion); a bottom wall portion 12 that allows vertical positioning and attitude stabilization of the tablet cassette 10 when the tablet cassette 10 is mounted to the base 20; a lower portion 13 that constitutes a part of a medicine containing space S for containing tablets and that is provided with a partition plate and a discharge port H to allow tablets to sequentially fall down; an upper portion 14 that also constitutes a part of the medicine containing space S for containing tablets to expand the medicine containing space to a space above the lower portion 13; and a lid 15 that opens and closes when tablets are replenished, etc. The tablet cassette 10 also includes the rotor 16 stored in the lower portion 13 so as to be rotatable about an axis. The rotor 16 includes a rotary body 16A, and a hollow rotary shaft 17 (follower shaft) that extends vertically downward from the position of the axis of the rotary body 16A, either directly (see Patent Documents 1 to 3, for example) or indirectly via a gear or the like (see Patent Document 4, for example), to project from the bottom surface of the lower portion 13. In other words, the rotor 16 includes the hollow rotary shaft 17 having an axial line extending in a direction orthogonal to the bottom wall portion 12 and having an opening portion on an opposite side to the tablet containing space S, and the rotary body 16A. The rotary body 16A is configured to rotate about the axial line together with the hollow rotary shaft 17 in the tablet containing space S of the tablet container 10A. The rotary body 16A is unitarily provided with a plurality of blades 16C for forming a plurality of tablet receiving portions 16B in a peripheral portion of the rotary body 16A at predetermined intervals in the circumferential direction to receive the tablets (not illustrated) one by one and to allow the tablets to pass therethrough to the discharge port H (see Patent Document 1 etc., for example).
The base 20 (see FIGS. 9 and 10) is fixed in an array to a shelf or the like of a storage of a tablet dispensing apparatus (see Patent Document 1, for example), or fixed to a top plate portion of a tablet splitting apparatus (see Patent Document 2, for example), and is configured to receive power supply and control required for operation from an object to which the base 20 is mounted. The base 20 includes the motor portion 21 (drive portion), a support portion 22 (seat portion), and a fitting portion 23 (seat portion). The motor portion 21 includes a drive shaft 24 having an outer tooth portion 25 at the upper end portion thereof to rotate the drive shaft 24 about an axis according to the control. The support portion 22 is shaped in a generally transverse plate, holds the motor portion 21 and is fixed to an object to which the base 20 is mounted. The fitting portion 23 is formed at the upper portion of the side peripheral surfaces of the support portion 22 to be fitted into the fitting frame 11. When the tablet cassette 10 is mounted on top of the base 20 (see FIG. 9B), the base 20 supports the tablet cassette 10 from below, and transfers a rotational force of the motor portion 21 to the tablet cassette 10.
A rotation transfer mechanism (see FIG. 10) between the tablet cassette 10 and the base 20 includes the hollow rotary shaft 17 which is a part (containing portion-side transfer mechanism) of the tablet cassette 10, and the drive shaft 24 which is a part (drive portion-side transfer mechanism) of the base 20. The hollow rotary shaft 17 is formed with a bottomed hole 17a that opens at the lower end. An inner tooth portion 18 is formed at the lower portion of the bottomed hole 17a. A first tapered surface 19 is formed at the lower-end opening portion of the inner tooth portion 18. Correspondingly, the outer tooth portion 25 is formed at the upper portion of the drive shaft 24 of the motor portion 21. A second tapered surface 26 is formed at the upper end portion of the outer tooth portion 25. When the tablet cassette 10 is moved downward onto the base 20 from above (see FIG. 9B), the fitting frame 11 and the fitting portion 23 are fitted with each other (see FIG. 10B), and the hollow rotary shaft 17 and the drive shaft 24 are fitted with each other (see FIG. 11B). In this event, initially, the first tapered surface 19 of the hollow rotary shaft 17 and the second tapered surface 26 of the drive shaft 24 are freely fitted with each other. Then, the inner tooth portion 18 of the hollow rotary shaft 17 and the outer tooth portion 25 of the drive shaft 24 are meshed with each other (see Patent Documents 1 to 3, for example).